Cleveland Law Library Weblog

Another Lawsuit Challenges Book Digitization of Copyrighted Works

Another lawsuit (S.D. NY. 1:2011cv06351) has been filed by the Authors Guild (whose President is Scott Turow), the Australian Society of Authors, the Québec Union of Writers, and various individual authors who allege that HathiTrust, a partnership of research and university libraries, has engaged in large-scale copyright infringement “by digitizing, archiving, copying and now publishing ... copyrighted works without the authorization of those works’ rights holders." A partial docket in the case is available from justia.com. A New York Times article cites the Authors Guild claim that the HaithiTrust has 7 million copyrighted works by more than 8,500 authors on servers maintained by the University of Michigan. Acording to the same article, the HathiTrust has digitized about 9.5 million works, of which approximately 27% are in the public domain. The article also references the still pending 2005 suit against Google, which brought similar allegations.

Cleveland Law Library Hosting Dec. 3rd Tech CLE on Mobile Apps., Cloud Computing and Blogging for Lawyers

Please join us for our upcoming technology CLE on December 3rd called The Web 2.0 Lawyer. For this program, we are bringing back a local law library favorite, Brett Burney of Burney Consultants, who will explain mobile apps. for lawyers and working in the cloud. Brett has a way of making even the most complex technologies easy to understand, and we hope you will take the opportunity to capture his latest insights for lawyers. Our head librarian will also show attendees how to create a blog for their legal practices to showcase expertise, market services to clients, and educate the general public about the legal profession. Our program will provide practical, hands-on knowledge that should help you make your practice more efficient and successful.

Rumor Is That Ohio Jurisprudence 4th Is In The Works

If the rumors are true, West  is planning to publish Ohio Jurisprudence 4th. We'll keep you posted when it comes out. Our library has access to the current version of Ohio Jurisprudence 3rd in print and via Westlaw so we will acquire OJur4th whenever it makes its debut.

Law Firms Cutting Back on Staff, Library Research and Business Development

A recent survey of law firm staffing by Hildebrandt Baker Robbins  concludes that law firms facing tough financial times are cutting back on their "backoffice" overhead costs. These costs include secretarial help, library research, and business development. I would not be a good librarian if I did not plug our Law Library, the Cleveland Law Library, as a substitute for your legal research needs. We can offer solos, small firms, and even large firms hit hard by the economy free in-house use of Lexis and Westlaw, as well as a lot of other databases. Memership is very affordable, and a single yearly fee provides a full 12 months of access. We are high-tech here and always welcome new members to our library. Join, and we can serve as your office away from your office.